Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-10-25-Speech-2-497-000"
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"en.20111025.29.2-497-000"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, I have listened to you, but let us be clear: as there is no genuine EU industrial policy, Europe now runs the risk, in a global economy, of gradually being drained of its industrial know-how, which was what made it prosperous in the first place. ArcelorMittal’s brutal decision is just another example of this in a traditional industry.
That decision – and this has already been said by others – was taken despite substantial profits, tax breaks and also the efforts made by our workers to improve competitiveness. It is the cause of considerable distress for hundreds of families, and it threatens the entire production chain, including the cold phase, the downstream industry and subcontractors. This represents thousands of jobs in a region that is already severely affected by unemployment. This decision to close, which stinks of pure speculation, and which is probably the first of many in Europe, comes with the owner’s refusal to sell the plant to any potential buyer in order to avoid competition. This is unacceptable.
Commissioner, how can we force this multinational to sell its production plant, thus ensuring competition by continuing activity and securing jobs? Trade union leaders advocate a transitional takeover by the public authorities. Do you think this is feasible from a European point of view, and how? Those two specific questions aside, Europe needs industry and industry needs Europe now more than ever, with the crisis. We must strive to ensure that the manufacturing industry and SMEs are once again at the centre of growth, even in traditional sectors, which are still innovative and can guarantee the industrial independence of Europe and the Union. This is one of the priorities of the Europe 2020 strategy.
Europe therefore needs to allocate adequate budgetary resources to kick-start a proactive industrial policy across the continent, a policy which does not play workers off against each other or promote social dumping, but which supports research, develops competitive clusters, maintains integrated processes and addresses the energy challenge. It is high time that Europe reacted and stopped acting powerless by putting up with others’ speculative strategies, which are impoverishing our citizens."@en1
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